Category: AI Copyright Wars

The Ultraman problem: China court rules AI company liable for infringing images of superhero

As reported by the Global Times, the Guangzhou Internet Court has ruled that an AI company that provided a text-to-image generator to paid subscribers was liable for copyright infringement based on the generation of the comic character Ultraman or similar figures. The AI generated images violated the reproduction and adaptation rights of the author. The…
Read more: The Ultraman problem: China court rules AI company liable for infringing images of superhero
Status of all copyright lawsuits v. AI (Feb. 29 , 2024)

Here’s the latest status report of the copyright lawsuits against AI companies as of Feb. 29, 2024. Highlights of this week: Also, please visit our Master List of all cases, which we just reorganized by juridisctions. Status of U.S. Copyright Lawsuits v. AI Cos. Case name Jurisdiction Judge Latest status Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GmbH…
Read more: Status of all copyright lawsuits v. AI (Feb. 29 , 2024)
OpenAI sued again, now by The Intercept, Raw Story, AlterNet. (Complaints)

The copyright lawsuits keep coming. This time, the Internet news sites Raw Story, AlterNet, and The Intercept have sued OpenAI in two lawsuits in the Southern District of New York. (First reported by The Daily Beast.) Very surprisingly, the two complaints allege only claims for removal of copyright management information under Section 1202 of the…
Read more: OpenAI sued again, now by The Intercept, Raw Story, AlterNet. (Complaints)
OpenAI moves to dismiss New York Times suit, alleging it “paid someone to hack” ChatGPT & exploit a bug, violating OpenAI’s terms of use. Wow.

In its just filed motion to dismiss the lawsuit, OpenAI unleashed on the New York Times. I can’t remember reading a brief as hard-hitting from the opening paragraphs as this one. “The allegations in the Times’s Complaint do not meet its famously rigorous journalisticstandards. The truth, which will come out in the course of this…
Read more: OpenAI moves to dismiss New York Times suit, alleging it “paid someone to hack” ChatGPT & exploit a bug, violating OpenAI’s terms of use. Wow.
Must reads: Timothy Lee, Grimmelmann, Sag on AI lawsuits; Samuelson on remedies, destruction of AI models

For those of you following the 16 copyright lawsuits against AI companies, including OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and Meta, plus several AI text-to-image generators, three very insightful articles were recently published by some of the leading copyright experts in the field. Timothy B. Lee and James Grimmelmann wrote an article in ars technica, provocatively titled: Why…
Read more: Must reads: Timothy Lee, Grimmelmann, Sag on AI lawsuits; Samuelson on remedies, destruction of AI models
Status of all copyright lawsuits v. AI (Feb. 18 , 2024)

Here’s the latest status report of the U.S. copyright lawsuits against AI companies as of Feb. 18, 2024. The biggest development was Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin’s granting in part OpenAI’s motion to dismiss the vicarious infringement claims, Section 1202 copyright management information claims, and some state law claims. Status of U.S. Copyright Lawsuits v. AI Cos.…
Read more: Status of all copyright lawsuits v. AI (Feb. 18 , 2024)
Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin grants in part OpenAI’s motion to dismiss Paul Tremblay’s and Sarah Silverman’s vicarious copyright claims, removal of CMI claims

OpenAI scored a partial victory in the copyright lawsuits against it brought by book authors Paul Tremblay, Sarah Silverman, and other authors seeking a class action. Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to allege specific facts to meet the requirements of vicarious copyright infringement, or the claims for removal of copyright management…
Read more: Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin grants in part OpenAI’s motion to dismiss Paul Tremblay’s and Sarah Silverman’s vicarious copyright claims, removal of CMI claims
Status of all copyright lawsuits v. AI (Feb. 9 , 2024)

Here’s the latest status report of the U.S. copyright lawsuits against AI companies. Status of U.S. Copyright Lawsuits v. AI Cos. Case name Jurisdiction Judge Latest status Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GmbH et al v. ROSS Intelligence Inc. D. Del. Bibas Trial on the copyright issues will begin on August 26, 2024, at 9:00 a.m.…
Read more: Status of all copyright lawsuits v. AI (Feb. 9 , 2024)
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella calls AI “transformative new technology” in response to New York Times lawsuit

Fascinating answer by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella about the New York Times copyright lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI. Nadella describes AI as a “new transformative technology,” and defers to the courts’ resolution of the cases and whether the training is fair use.
Read more: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella calls AI “transformative new technology” in response to New York Times lawsuit
New York Times article finds more “memorized” AI works by Midjourney, ChatGPT, Bing

In yet another stunning article, this one titled “We Asked AI to Create the Joker. It Generated a Copyrighted Image,” the New York Times provided more examples of “memorized” visual works, which resulted from prompts, including some nonspecific ones, on Midjourney (5 examples), ChatGPT (2 examples), and Microsoft Bing (2 examples). The AI generated works…
Read more: New York Times article finds more “memorized” AI works by Midjourney, ChatGPT, Bing